Process Monitoring
Monitor process parameters with the MES' built-in process historian
Do you need to capture process parameters in real-time?
Some processes are complex and difficult to comprehend. There may be many process parameters for instance: temperatures, flow rates, pressures, speeds, cooling processes, moisture and environmental factors. Use the Process Monitoring software module to:
- Help operatives running the process keep the process running well, within defined limits
- When things go wrong, use historical data to pinpoint what happened
- Gain insight to resolve process problems
Capture process parameters data
- Connect to multiple PLCs to collect process parameter data in real-time via OPC
- Collect data from hundreds of parameters
- Parameters, like temperatures, pressures, rates, time, or digital signals and alarms
- Track when parameters move outside specification limits
- Track items on an event basis, when the data changes - for example: machines stopping/starting, alarm events
- Very easily add new parameters through simple configuration
Charting and Reporting
- Show key parameters to operatives running the process so they know when the process is running well
- Run historical reports
- Compare parameters side by side to look for interdependencies and effects
- Improve performance and reduce quality losses - by keeping processes running properly in their target zone
- Gain insight – develop a better understanding of process interactions
- Resolve process problems - help identify the root causes
- Engage remote support - process experts located off-site can perform remote diagnostics and support operations via web access
- Traceability - provide improved process related traceability e.g. oven temperatures, cooling rates etc.
The process information within Shopfloor-Online MES is of course supplemented with all the other factory data that is within its scope, e.g. production orders, product being made, equipment used, materials consumed and created. The whole is extremely valuable for diagnostic and traceability purposes, as well as providing greater insight from an analytical perspective. The more sources of information captured the greater the value, for example:
- Job Tracking – know precisely when production runs ran, what product was being made, correlate the process parameters with the product being manufactured
- Quality – see the interaction between process parameters (like oven temperatures) and measured characteristics (like hardness)
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